For the first time, a Hong Kong government lawyer is to head an overseas trade office.
Senior Department of Justice official Stephen Wong Kai-yi will soon depart for Berlin, where a trade promotion office is about to open.
Mr Wong, a former deputy solicitor-general, has been named director of the Hong Kong and Economic and Trade Office, which is scheduled to open some time after June 30. The new office is an effort by the government to expand Hong Kong's ties with nine eastern European countries.
Paul Wong Yan-yin, an assistant secretary in the Economic Development and Labour Bureau, will be the office's deputy director.
Administrative officers - the civil service's elite - usually head economic and trade offices, although there have been cases before of officials from other civil service grades filling such posts.
Mr Wong, who joined the government in 1980, is one of few lawyers in the government with strong knowledge of mainland law. He was deeply involved in the Hong Kong government's preparations for mainland China's accession to the World Trade Organisation and the establishment of the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement between Hong Kong and the mainland.